'MATERS!!

I am so incredibly excited.

Why, you ask.

This is why...

Tomato plants. I'm very excited because I haven't had time or space to really grow a garden, although I've always wanted to. And although I still don't have time or space for a full blown garden, tomato plants are fairly easy to grow in big pots on the porch. So that is what I will do!

This year I will do a few tomato plants.I have six currently, 2 beef steak and 4 ruetgers. But I'm going to give my mom half of them to supplement her garden. I'm just going to grow 3. If the tomato plants go well this summer, next summer I would like to add maybe some pepper plants and some cucumber plants to my potted porch garden. I love growing things and find it incredibly rewarding to exercise my green thumb.

I'd like some additional ideas for plants I might could grow in pots next year if this year's operation goes well. So if you have any suggestions, please comment! Maybe in a couple of years my children won't be quite so difficult and I can till up a spot and have some strawberries, corn and asparagus. Because I absolutely LOVE those foods. I also love green beans and sweet peas, but I have a pretty small, hilly yard. The places that get good full sun are really limited.

And there's just something adorable about baby plants. How silly am I? But I think they're cute. I'm attached to them. I don't want any harm to befall them. I hope they grow up big and strong and do great things with their lives. I guess once a mom always a mom. Even if that child is small, green and leafy.

I went down to the basement this morning and found two good sized pots. Partially filled them with some of my peat moss potting soil that I had. Tomorrow I've got a big Walmart trip planned so I'm going to pick up one more pot and some Miracle Gro potting soil. The variety with the plant food and the moisture retention. Then tomorrow afternoon I'm going to be planting some maters.

I know it's silly to be so excited. But I can't help it. It's the little things in life that I derive great pleasure from. Reading a good book. Planting some flowers. Growing tomatoes. As a result, I tend to be a pretty happy person.

Emily was a little puzzled by my dragging pots out to the deck and digging around in the dirt part of the morning. She gets fussed at for that sort of activity...dragging things onto the porch...digging in the dirt. Nonetheless, I can tell she's excited about 'maters too. Evie is super excited about the playing in the dirt part. I had to shoo her away several times this morning because I didn't want to have to deal with giving her a bath before work. Tomorrow, when the real planting occurs she will get to help.

I'm also going to be picking up some nice flowers and making a couple of decorative pots to sit around on the deck. And I might even go by Lowes and get some paint for the deck. Because yet again my stupid deck needs painting. Once we get it painted this year though, we're putting a gate up and keeping the dogs out. Their little toenails and wild games are hard on the already weary wood. Plus, once we get a lockable gate up, I can take the babies onto the deck to play without having to constantly yell at Evie to get her little booty back up the steps. Hopefully in a couple more weeks my deck will be a fabulous place to enjoy some time outside. Tomato plants, flowers, and fresh paint. Ahhhh.

Evie and the Heifers

I just realized that I still haven't blogged about this and I'm kinda annoyed with myself since I have been drawing blanks most days on blog ideas. And all this time I had this one, with cute pictures to boot, and didn't even realize I hadn't already written it! What does that say about my state of mind? That I really thought I had already written this post? Probably bad things. I blame sleep deprivation. Babies do that to ya.

So, anyways, on Mother's Day we went to my grandmother's house. It was truly the highlight of my day. Well, my grandmother's house and the fantabulous brie and bacon quiche that I made for breakfast that morning.

My grandparents live near the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Appalachian Mountains. In case you don't live around here, is pronounced "Apple-latch-an" not "apple-lay-shan." I grew up there. And no one in the Appalachian mountains prounouces it like you outsiders do. So stop. You are driving me crazy. My grandparents and great grandparents lived on the family land my entire life and quite a bit before that. Unfortunately my great grandparents passed away when I was in college and my grandmother sold their house but the land is all still in the family. On that land my family has pretty much always had cattle. Beef cattle in fact.

My uncle owns the cattle these days. He and his wife make the daily rounds feeding and checking the cows, heifers, and calves. The solitary Angus bull lives in a small pasture by himself near their home when he's not in with the cows doing his job. The cows and calves are spread across different pastures depending on the time of year and what's going on with them. My uncle doesn't just sell steers and heifers for beef anymore. These days you make more money as a small family operated farm by selling heifers to big farmers for breeding. Or so I'm told. So my uncle and aunt spend a lot of time artificially inseminating heifer with sperm from award-winning bloodline bulls from around the country. Then raising those calves to sell to big farmers.

My uncle has mostly Angus blood in his herds now. But there are still some white faced calves with Hereford blood. The white-faced calves are my favorite. I personally love Herefords, the red cows with white faces, but Black Baldies, black cows with white faces (acheived by breeding Angus and Herefords), are pretty adorable too. My great grandfather had a few Brahman cattle in his herd. I remember those cows quite clearly because they were incredibly mean for some reason. Brahman look very exotic with their hump at their shoulders. The bull he had when I was little was incredibly huge. My second cousin inherited those cattle from Pa Booker, and as far as I know several of the cows still have some Brahman heritage. I don't know if they are any more docile these days or not.

(**Note: Heifer are females that have never had calves. Cows are females. Bulls are males. Calves are babies. Steers are bulls that have been castrated. Just to catch you up on the terminology...**)

I grew up around livestock. I have never thought much about the process of feeding cattle or taking care of farm business because I grew up with it. I learned that day that not everyone has such experience. My step dad and husband were somewhat in awe watching the cows trot across the pasture when they heard my uncle's truck crank. Cattle recognize the sound of the vehicle that feeds them, be it a truck, tractor, or whatever, and when they hear that bad boy coming...they come running. Andreas and Josh have never spent any time on a farm (City boys...lol) and just marvelled at that. The whole experience for them seemed pretty impressive. It was a little funny to me. I can't imagine not knowing all these things about farm life.

Of course Evie had an excuse. For one, she's not even two. And she hasn't spent any time yet on a farm. For another, she loves all animals and cows to her seem like big dogs. She stood at the fence and mooed at the cows. Laughing and talking to them. She put her hand through the fence and beckoned to the cows. Of course, they were super freaked out by these little person shrieking and mooing at them and huddled together a safe distance away to observe her.

Once they were fed they pretty much paid us zero mind. No matter what Evie did. But she was still pretty happy with the experience. Even if she didn't get to pet a cow like she wanted to. She stood at the fence and mooed and shrieked and waved. Happy as could be.

It was really neat to watch Evie savoring her farm experience. That is definitely one of my favorite parts of having kids...one of many of course. But watching them experience new things and seeing their reactions and how they learn and grow. It's just amazing.

Even if it is just spending 20 minutes watching my aunt and uncle feed some heifers. It was a great time.

The Class of 2011

It has been a long time since I graduated from high school. Or college for that matter. And as the month of May comes to a close, I find myself thinking about this year's graduates and the world they're going out to. When I graduated from high school I was so excited. The next step! College! Freedom! Standing on the football field as the sun set, I felt like finally my life was starting. I hated high school. Hated it so so much. And it was finally over. Hallelujah!

Then college started. Ugh. It was nearly as useless as high school. More books and tests and papers. So little learning.

I have always loved to learn. It's a trait that I hope to pass on to my kids because it's handy to have. I can spend all day surfing around Wikipedia, reading and learning. I love it. I love knowing things. I'm a fount of truly useless facts and knowledge. It's weird. But, ya know, that's just who I am. There were only a few classes in high school that I really felt like I was learning in. I was a fast student, a smart kid. I suppose I'm still smart. So I know I was more of a difficult child to challenge. But so often teachers just taught to a test. Taught to the lowest performing student. An unfortunate result of standardized testing and No Child Left Behind. I didn't get to be excited about class very often.

College was a lot more of the same. There were more exciting classes but once more I learned how much work I needed to do in the classes I was bored with and that was what I did. I made Chancellor's and Dean's lists a couple of times. But, it didn't really feel important enough to care about. Since I had no interest in going on to Graduate School.

When I graduated from college it was less excitement and more a sense of relief that FINALLY my schooling was over. Real life could finally begin.

Once out in the "real world" I was struck by one thing -- how much school does NOT prepare you. Unless you have your own place and deal with finances yourself, you don't really learn a lot about real life while in college. You don't learn about credit cards, balancing a budget, buying a home, setting up a retirement fund, how to invest your savings...the list goes on and on. All things that you will hopefully be doing shortly after graduating from school. But they don't teach you how to do it. And what do you do if your parents never did these things? Or didn't do these things well? Or you don't talk to your parents?

Bad habits can just carry on, generation after generation. No wonder we're still paying $4 or more a gallon for gas. We don't seem to desire any improvement for future generations. Our grandparents' generation should have started preparing for electric cars and wind power and green energy. But they didn't. Instead they paid 10 cents a gallon for gas and they drove gas-guzzlers everywhere for everything. And now we're all just sitting in shock thinking "Aww, crap."

I feel so bad for today's college graduates. This year's graduates have staggering college loan debts and there aren't jobs available for them. They have no way to pay back those loans. House prices are still outrageously low, in fact my house is worth so much less than I paid for it that it really pisses me off. But new graduates can't buy a home, because they can't get a job! They're fed all this hope and faith about how great life is going to be once they graduate from college and it's not going to be. It's going to be hard. Times are tough and this tunnel is long, dark and doesn't have a lot of light at the end. I just hope that things turn around for us all soon.

I think Oprah said it best "You are responsible for your life." So let's all go out and make our lives count for something. Teach our kids to do better than we have done and make a difference. A real difference. Let's change the world.

Sunday in the Sun

Kids are so amazing. How different they are. How fast they change. How much you can see yourself in them at time.

It amazes me how different two girls with the same basic genetic make up can be. One a blond, one a brunette. One an early chatterbox, the other a late talker. Evie was always so independent while Elly is so clingy. Elly refuses to be on a schedule while Evie melts down if hers changes. Now another difference has developed. Elly hates the water.

I don't remember Evie really loving the water until she got old enough to start playing in it. But she never hated it. Never did she cry or fight or fuss about taking a bath. Elly on the other hand...well, I think it comes down to the fact that she hates being cold. If one part of her body is the water and the other out, that part is cold and she cries. On a hot day, the pool water feels nice and cool...so she cries. It's really kinda strange. I've discovered she likes to be toasty right below the point of sweating when she sleeps. So maybe she likes to be warm. Really warm.

On Sunday I took the girls to my mom's to have a little pool day. My mom has a medium sized pool that I think is just about the perfect size. In fact, I've told Josh that I want to buy one just like it this summer. Because I think for us having just enough water for all us to be able to get in and get a little wet...its perfect. So anyways, we all went to swim. It was Sissy's first time in water that wasn't her bath and she fussed incessantly. Of course. Leave it to Elly to spoil a perfectly good plan. So I got her out and got her dried off and we laid on the blanket in the shade while Evie and Mimi played in the water.

It was pleasant enough but I really wished she enjoyed the water like her big sister. But what I want doesn't mean a whole lot to a 3 month old. Watching her roll around on the blanket while Evie tore around the yard and climbed in and out of the pool was definitely a relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon. So no major complaints.

She laughed and cooed and "talked" to me. When she isn't crying, she's actually pretty pleasant to be around. And the crying jags are getting shorter and further between.

Its amazing how much little people can change in such a short amount of time. Evie will be 2 in just a couple of months. Two! It blows my mind! Little Elly is suddenly able to get her hands to her mouth (just in time because she's starting to teeth), able to grab things with her hands, push up on her arms and look around during tummy time and she's starting to be able to sit up by herself when she's got a Boppy around her to stabilize. It's amazing! Thinking that a year ago now Evie was taking her first steps and that a year from now Elly will be running all over the house and climbing the walls like Evie is now. It's crazy to think about.

I hope Elly's aversion to the water changes. I will probably keep dragging her in the water this summer to see if I can't force her to at least tolerate it. In the meantime, sitting poolside and watching baby toes wiggle in the grass ain't bad...

I absolutely LOVE summer. And I'm so excited about my first summer with both girls.

Mom vs. Doctor

I do not have a medical degree. I have never been to medical school nor have I ever studied pediatric medicine. I am however a mom. And sometimes I think being the mother of a child gives you more knowledge than any medical degree.

Despite medical recommendations I have done the unthinkable and started my 3 1/2 month old on solids. Yeah...the horror. I know.

Most doctors recommend not starting solid foods until a baby is at least 6 months old. They say 4 months is okay, but they prefer 6 months typically. However, for babies with reflux or colic many doctors recommend adding rice cereal to their bottle. So how much different is to feed them cereal on a spoon rather than a bottle?

Yesterday, Elly ate her usual 6 oz bottle first thing but she was still hungry. Instead of my usual tactic, making her two more ounces and risking some major spit up, I decided to see how she did with some oatmeal. Evie was still snoozing so I plopped Elly into Evie's high chair and made her a small bowl of super watery cereal and let her try it. She loved it! Sucked down about a dozen spoonfuls before she got full.

I warned my mom when I dropped the girls off, even though it had been several hours since Elly had eaten. She will spit up for hours after she's eaten sometimes. So I told my mom what I had done to prepare her for the spit up potential. When I picked the girls up last night I asked how everything had gone and to my surprise was told that Elly had done phenomenally all day. She hadn't spit up all day and she hadn't had any of her colicky crying jags like she usually has in the afternoons.

So maybe this cereal thing was a good idea after all? Well this is day two. So we will so if the good side effects continue or if it was a one-day-fluke. We did cereal again this morning and Evie cried when I put Elly in her high chair. I promised Evie it was temporary but that Sissy wanted to eat some oatmeal. Evie decided that was okay.

I went ahead and ordered Elly a full-blown high chair yesterday morning, since we were planning on starting solids in a couple of weeks anyways. Its only a little early but it just goes to show maybe doctors don't know everything. We started Evie on solids at 4 months, against our pediatrician's concerns. (Just a side note, we have changed pediatricians and this one recommends waiting only until Elly s 4 months old) And Evie has turned out fine. She's happy and healthy and doesn't seem to have any health concerns. Her eczema was around long before I started her on solids and Elly's skin started breaking out a couple of weeks ago too. so I don't think that has anything to do with solids.

I'm very excited about starting this new chapter in Elly's life. There are so many big changes in a baby's life in the first year and solids are one of the first. Next will be sitting up unassisted and finger foods, crawling, pulling up and walking. It's so exciting! I'm so looking forward to the day when I have 2 toddlers, crazy as it seems. But that day is creeping closer and closer. Solids are just one step.

The End is Nigh?

I don't like to talk about religion or politics much. Because I'm young and liberal and around here those two traits don't earn you a lot of friends and can regularly turn good friends into hated enemies. It's easy to argue over both politics and religion and generally speaking whatever feelings someone has about one or the other are strong ones that evoke a heated emotional debate.

In the South, there are churches on every other corner because when politics come into play people's feelings get hurt and next thing you know half of the First Baptist Church's congregation has gone down the street and built a new church called Freedom Baptist Church and then someone gets mad 'cause they wanted to name the new church something else so now you have a third church across town called New Word Baptist Church and so on. It's how us Baptists are. Especially us Southern Baptists. And if you dont like it, well go somewhere else.

I don't typically like to talk about religion or politics but I'm afraid that today I'm going to, against my better judgement.

Harold Camping has decided/determined/been told/whatever that tomorrow, Saturday, May 21,2011 the rapture will take place. And it has created quite a stir in the news and on the Internet. Honestly, I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about this whole world ending thing. Not because I necessarily believe Camping is right. The odds are seriously against Camping being right, historically and Biblically speaking. But the thing that got me to thinking was the "what if...?"

I feel pretty confident that if the Rapture does occur tomorrow, my babies, my family and I will all be together. I've not worried about being left behind or struggling through the end days. Instead I have thought about those who would remain on Earth after the rapture. I read the Left Behind series several years ago (they're a great read if you have time) and I've read Revelations and I know that the days between Rapture and Armageddon will be horrible days. I feel pity for these people planning their After Rapture parties. Or people who joke about showing up for work Monday when no one else will be there. I worry about them.
And silly as it may be, I really worry about my poor little dog. Everyone's poor little dogs. Who will be left closed up in a house with only a couple of days worth of food and water accessible. Because starvation and dehydration are horrible and cruel and our sweet pets don't deserve it.

So, while I may not think that the world is ending tomorrow, it has certainly started me to thinking. What kind of world are we living in where people plan parties because they won't be going? That kind of breaks my heart. And I've kind of pondered what it will be like for everyone who doesn't go when they show up for work on Monday. I've thought about the movies coming out this summer, and the zoo trip we have planned for June. I will be sad to miss out on those. And it struck me that if the rapture does occur my Great Grandparents, who I miss terribly, will get to meet my little girls finally. I've wondered if my brother Ethan would go, and if so if all his health and mental issues would be fixed. So yeah, I've spent some time thinking about it. Just wondering. Not necessarily saying that I believe Camping. But the end of days is certainly something to gnaw on every once in awhile.

My weekend plans have not changed. I'm going to make a pot of chicken and dumplings. I still want to take the girls downtown tomorrow morning for a walk and to visit a couple of shops before it gets too hot. I'd really like for them to wear a couple of their new sundresses. Then I want to try and get my azaleas and forsythia trimmed back while Josh weedeats. After Evie's nap we are all going to troop outside to play until supper because the recent string of rainy days has left me a little gloomy and Vitamin K deficient and has made Evie hyper and obnoxious. And Saturday night will be spent watching a Disney movie with Evie, reading bedtime stories and snuggling on the couch til bedtime.

So has it affected you any? Have you spent any time thinking on the situation or changed your plans to accommodate an unplanned departure?

Either way, I think I'm good. But I am not telling anyone if I put out extra water for Mushu. Just in case...

The ABSOLUTE GREATEST gift...(aside from my kids, of course...)

Yes, that's right. I know I've been slacking on my blog lately but I have a really good excuse. Okay...its mostly just an excuse. Actually the end of last week, Blogger was down and I couldn't blog even though I had several good blog ideas during that time that of course I can no longer remember. But on Thursday evening my Mother's Day present finally arrived. And since then I've been dedicating all my spare time to it.

So, what did I get you ask...

*drum rolls*

An iPad 2!

(Please disregard my seriously chipped purple finger nail polish)

I have wanted an iPad since they came out. At first it was just a "hey, those would be neat to have" sort of want. But as the apps have improved and developers have created better and better ways to utilize the iPad's unique capabilities, my desire for one has increased 10-fold. By the time the iPad 2 came out this past March I felt like I absolutely had to have one and began trying to con my husband into getting me one convince my husband I needed one.

Finally I found a reason for him to get me one...

Educational apps...

No joke. There are tons of them. And not just crappy flash cards with the alphabet on them. But really neat applications that can entertain your kid while also helping them learn colors, shapes, alphabet, math, etc. I'm not talking about handing my two-year an iPad and telling her to go play, reducing our interacting and adding to her total screen time. But instead using the iPad to replace some of her existing television or movie time. Using the iPad creatively to draw and play and learn and not just sending her off by herself, but using the devise together as a way to help me TEACH her. How cool, huh?

So, as a collective family present to me, I finally got an iPad. Granted, I won't be receiving any more gifts until Christmas (or so my husband says...haha) but I have my iPad.

Hooray!!

Now I've loaded it up with books for me and Evie, a couple of games for me, of course Netflix and HBO and Facebook, and some educational games for Evie. Honestly, the games for Evie are pretty fun. Even if it is kindergarten and preschool level addition and subtraction or matching games. They're fun! I even got a game for Josh...in case I ever let him play it.

It's amazing watching Evie use the iPad. It's so impressive to see her immediately "get" how it works and poke the animals to make them talk or pull the string to turn of the lights or whatever. I know the device is supposed to be easy to use and intuitive, but seeing a 21 month old use it is still pretty incredible.

The only downside is that I am a little obsessed. I do most of my internet surfing on the iPad now. Even though I have a laptop at home, just because the iPad makes it more fun and more intuitive. Same for Facebook and email. Now I'm even more excited about my cellphone contract being up for renewal in November since Verizon finally has the iPhone (and the white one has been released!) so I can get some of the App Store apps I love on my phone. The iPad is super portable but I hate taking it with me EVERYwhere because it is big and expensive and not made to be as durable as a cell phone. And now that I've experienced the super awesomeness of iOS, I really hate my Droid with its lame Android OS. I mean, I hated it before. But now I really hate it. And it's less personal issue and more legitimate complaint now. The Droid seems so ugly and dark compared to the Apple devices. Ugh.

So I'm an Apple convert. Living an iTunes and App Store life.

But I'm a happy convert!